Thu, 01 Dec 2005
Sound Recording Practice
Ed. John Borwick, Sound Recording Practice, 4th Edition,
Oxford University Press
This title has been around for quite some time and is one
of the more respected books in its field. With the glossary
and index it is 616 pages long so it's a moderately hefty tome
as well. There is now a paperback version as well as the
original hardback.
The approach is to have expert authors of sections which, in their
totality, cover just about everything you might need to know. We
start off with basic acoustics and electronics, and digital theory
and then move on to studio planning and installation. Then on to
equipment, mobile set ups, the producer, post-production etc. As you
can see, it traces a logical route through the process.
As far as depth goes, it gives a good generalist introduction
to topics. That is to say, if you want to be a sound or
DSP designer or an acoustic expert, you will need to read more
elsewhere but most people involved with studios and recording
won't need to go very much deeper at all except into their
software manuals. In places there is quite some detail: for instance
there is a very handy section which lists different mic types
suitable for different jobs. It's a good starter for your own
mic lore collection.
And that brings up the point of how up to date it all is. This
seems to be a 1992 edition so we haven't quite got to DVD or SACD yet and
there isn't much about Surround either. Also, the section on recording
concentrates on console digitalisation rather than offshoots such as
Pro Tools and the newly popular Pyramix, operating on computers.
That's not a fatal or even near-fatal flaw. The rest of the
material is so useful that the book easily earns its place in any
audio engineering section of the bookshelf.
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pre Dec 04 reviews are here